Mental Patient Cannot Sue Hospital Over Rape

A Broward County mental hospital and the state agency that supervises it cannot be sued for the rape nine years ago of an incompetent teen-age patient, a federal judge in West Palm Beach has ruled.

The lawyer for the Delray Beach woman agreed Wednesday to drop a lawsuit against a doctor and social worker, saying he would instead concentrate on appealing the order that protects South Florida State Hospital and the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

U.S. District Judge James C. Paine, in a seven-page order issued Tuesday, said the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution makes it clear the state and its agencies cannot be sued in federal court without their consent.

Attorneys, however, said Paine`s ruling does not set any sweeping precedent limiting the ability of Floridians to sue state agencies. A future ruling by a federal appeals court in Atlanta, perhaps as long as a year from now, could clarify the situation, they said.

Attorney Richard Daniels argued in court documents that the state had waived its immunity through a law that deals with alleged civil rights violations by state workers. Paine, however, ruled the law applies only to actions by individual employees, not by agencies.

``I`m extremely disappointed that HRS and South Florida State Hospital can use their immunity to relieve themselves of their responsibility for what goes on out there,`` Daniels said.

William Hall, an attorney for the state, said it was inevitable the case would end up at the appeals court, and he was pleased to have the initial ruling in his favor.

The female victim, who was 19 when she was assaulted in her bed at the Pembroke Pines mental hospital, filed suit against HRS, the hospital and several staff workers claiming they violated her constitutional right to safe confinement. The woman was committed at her mother`s request.

The victim was attacked by a male patient who had been kept in a ward with other potentially dangerous patients until a week before the March 19, 1976, rape. Doctors have testified that their best professional judgment indicated the man should be returned to the hospital`s open dormitory area.

Daniels said the medical personnel were not the main targets of the lawsuit, and agreed to drop the suit against them after Paine exempted the hospital and HRS from the lawsuit.

``We feel that our best case -- and perhaps our only case -- is against the state HRS and South Florida Hospital,`` Daniels said. ``I firmly believe if we go after (just) the doctor and nurse, we have very little chance of success.``